Hollow Back Girl by Olivia R. Burton

Author:Olivia R. Burton [Burton, Olivia R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: empathy, paranormal romance, nature fantasy, mercenary, woodwives, Urban Fantasy
ISBN: 0997633379
Amazon: B07GX2KGHL
Goodreads: 41758410
Publisher: Peacock Deceiving a Suitcase
Published: 2018-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

I eased out of the shower realizing I’d missed lunch and possibly dinner. My stomach, having finally come out of the injury-induced hole in which it had been hiding, was crying out for satiation, growling like J.J. pretending to be a zombie dinosaur. Ignoring it, I swiped a towel over the mirror, took a look at my naked body.

It was a pretty miserable sight.

The bruises on my ribs and left breast were still present, having been joined by the scrapes along my wrists, a small lump under my right eyebrow where I’d been hit. The back of my neck felt raw, but I didn’t have a second mirror to see what had happened there, so I could only guess it was similar to the scrapes along my cheek. As I swiped lotion over my legs, I found more bruises along my ankle and calf where the Lofriska had gripped me. I hadn’t noticed it at the time, but her bark had managed to scrape the back of my ankle raw. I was not looking forward to trying to find shoes that wouldn’t irritate that happy little wound. I took one last glance at myself in the mirror before pulling on my softest, no-underwire bra. I was purple and raw and pretty sure there were scabs on top of scabs.

Overall, I kind of looked like a piñata full of beet soup. I had to just hope nothing else tried to crack me open.

I dug through the pockets of my clothes before balling them up. I would have to wash them—or, more likely, my mother would—before I could wear them again and I didn’t want anything going through the wash that shouldn’t be wet. When I found the coin that Chloe had stolen from Samuel, I tucked it into my pocket absently, not thinking anything of it.

Chloe met me in Thomas’ room, handed me my phone. As she frowned at my face, I felt pity roll out of her. I noted that Izzy and his holiday candies were nowhere to be found. Shutting the door, I moved to set my bag back on the chair by the door, dug around in it until I found some fat, fuzzy socks.

“So, what really happened?”

“This woman—did I tell you about Owen’s … friend?”

Chloe lifted a brow, shook her head. “Not entirely. The ex?”

“Yeah. Apparently she knows—she does what he does, so they’ve crossed paths. Anyway.” I dropped onto the bed next to her, winced a bit when my body reminded me not to treat it quite so roughly. “When he and I ran into her she must’ve caught some sort of scent off me. Figuratively: she's human. She showed up after I went to see Thomas, pulled a tiny knife on me, and dragged me out to the forest. She cuffed me, asked me what it was I did for Owen.”

“And you told her what?” Chloe asked. There was a simmering anger inside her that seemed much too intense for stemming simply from worry over me.

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